Labor Practices : Management Approach

Based on our management philosophy, "Develop people before making products," we promote a corporate culture in which every employee can display his or her abilities.

"People" are the source of growth for all companies. Accordingly, without a trained staff, business expansion is impossible. Panasonic gathers together men and women of differing ages and nationalities, and fosters an atmosphere to enable them to reach their full potential, which is indispensable for ceaselessly creating innovative value.

Panasonic maintains the management philosophy "People are the foundation of business. Develop people before making products." Recognizing the importance of human resource development since its foundation, Panasonic opened the Matsushita Electric Staff Training School in 1934. This recognition is currently specified in the Panasonic Code of Conduct: "The basis of management is people," we are committed to developing human resources with outstanding specialties, creativity and a challenging spirit, as well as to developing our own abilities through personnel systems, employee education and training." We make every effort to promote this principle in Group companies both in Japan and overseas.

Based on this concept, we apply our worldwide "Human Resources Development Policy" to promote specific personnel training programs. Included in this policy, "Requirements for All Panasonic Group Employees" and "Basic Guidelines for Managers" clearly specify helpful hints to managers in this area.

In addition, Panasonic has positioned "Promoting Diversity" as an important management policy and established the "Global Diversity Policy" in order to create new value by enabling its diverse global personnel to fully utilize their various talents. Putting these policies into action, we seek the best qualified people for each of our businesses irrespective of age, gender, nationality, and then provide training, systematic career development and appointment, while promoting the global unification of Panasonic's personnel systems.

Maintaining safe workplaces in which employees feel comfortable is a key responsibility of companies. Panasonic has established the Activity Guidelines for Occupational Safety and Health Program. Included in this is the "Occupational Safety and Health Declaration," which states: "Based on the basic management philosophy of respecting people, Panasonic Corporation is committed to creating safe and healthy workplaces, both physically and mentally, through appropriate and careful attention and consistent effort." In addition, Panasonic is developing on a global scale an Occupational Safety and Health Management System that adopts OHSAS 18001, the international standard for occupational health and safety, as its applicable standard, as well as obtaining external OHSAS 18001 certification where applicable.